Oil Tycoon Turns Green Crusader

"This is one emergency we can't drill our way out of."

So says legendary oil man T. Boone Pickens, about the current energy costs that are well on their way to turn into this generation's energy crisis.



With the emerging economies in China and India, oil is just going to keep getting more expensive and more scarce. Drilling is not the answer. It is time to start in earnest the shift to alternative energy sources.

We import 70 percent of our oil at the cost of over 700 billion a year. In 1970 the number was only 20 percent. This percentage is increasing every year. As Pickens says, "Projected over the next 10 years the cost will be $10 trillion — it will be the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind."

There is no silver bullet to fix our energy woes, but Picken's Plan is a nice piece of hardware to start building an arsenal to do it. His plan is to build windmills to generate electricity, and to shift the natural gas they replace to power cars.

Natural gas is our second most plentiful homegrown energy resource. Wind is the most plentiful alternative energy source in Picken's home state of Texas. Experts say that the US could generate as much as 20 percent of our electricity with wind power in less than 10 years. Plus, as the manufacture of hybrid and electric cars starts to ramp up, that wind power means cleaner energy and less foreign oil on the highways of America.

Pickens then proposes to start converting cars to natural gas power. Every car that is converted to homegrown natural gas means a drop in the amount oil we need to import. Natural gas is much cheaper and cleaner than gasoline, and the conversion costs much less than a hybrid or electric conversion.

T. Boone Pickens has heard the call, and has put his money where his mouth is. TV ads are not cheap. Sure, he stands to make a lot of money with the windmills he is financing, but that is not the point. It is time for private industry and the government to get together and solve this crisis and break our addiction to foreign oil.

Look folks, this is one of those clarion calls that we all must answer. As if gas prices, global climate change, and war in the Middle East is not enough, how about the future viability of the American way of life.

Take a look at Picken's Plan: www.pickensplan.com

Who’s Whining Now?

Will the carnage ever end? Another campaign advisor bites the dust via foot-in-mouth disease.

John McCain’s chief economic advisor Phil Gramm resigned over the weekend after calling the financially-strapped American people “a nation of whiners.”

Gramm blames democrats for his resignation, instead of blaming his ill-timed words. Now that’s what I call a "mental recession."

The real blame should rest with McCain for relying on Gramm to be his chief “educator” on the economic issues he has admitted to not knowing much about.

Phil Gramm has been vice chairman of UBS Investment Bank for over five years and has lobbied Congress on the company's behalf. UBS has lost 70% of its value in the past year due to its part in the subprime debacle.

I guess Phil is no longer the leading candidate for Secretary of Treasury in a McCain administration.

Satirical Fist Bump?

Satire? Yes. Controversial? Yes.
News Flash ... Magazines like to sell copies! ! !

The New Yorker magazine's Obama cover has achieved its objective. More copies were sold, people discussed the cover, and even a few talked about the article.

The cover was trying to satirize the falsehoods and lies circling the Internet about Barack and Michelle Obama.
Secret Muslim.
Madrases schooled.
Not proud of America.
Hates America.
Won't Pledge allegiance to the flag.
Flag burners; baby killers; militant black terrorists ? ? ?

Well, here's another news flash from flyover country.
Lots of folks out here believe that crap. They don't know the New Yorker is known for satirical covers. They have never read the New Yorker. All they see is the cover on the TV, not hearing the announcer over the din of crunching potato chips, and they turn to each other and say, "see, I told you so."

Here's another news flash people ... that paragraph was also satire. Lots of us flyover folks can read and often do.

So, magazines were sold, opinions were hardened and the campaign goes on. No minds were changed, no real damage was done, and once again the real issues that people care about were "bumped" out of the discussion.

AAWWKKWWAARRDD

Another day, another surrogate with diarrhea of the mouth. This time it is John McCain's economic advisor Carly Fiorina. She decided to stray from the topic of economics and talk about the fact that birth control is not covered by many insurance plans, but Viagra is. A very reasonable point, except that it goes against McCain's Senate vote on the subject.

What follows was a question for McCain that he was just not ready for:



Republican political operative Ed Rollins said it was the most awkward moment he had seen in 40 years of politics. To say the least! With the economy on everyone's mind, the last thing he wants to do is tell women he is not in touch with issues that matter to them, especially with Hillary supporters out there still swaying towards McCain over Obama.

Not to worry, another surrogate will open their pie hole and capture the media's attention.

Happy Birthday USA

Have a safe and happy July 4th

Darwinian Evolution 150 years old today

Happy Anniversary!

On July 1st, 1858, Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace published joint papers announcing the theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

Linnean Society of London Celebrates 150 Years of the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. Read the official press release: http://www.linnean.org/index.php?id=408

SCOTUS - District of Columbia v. Heller

The Supreme Court finally pours some sand on the slippery slope argument.

Gun control laws will not lead to the removal of the right to bear arms. Americans have the Constitutional right to bear arms.

You get to keep your guns ! ! ! Are you happy now? Go buy another ... buy a dozen ... fill your house from floor to ceiling with them for all we care!

Now that a precedent has been set by the highest court in the land, can we get back to a reasonable discussion on gun control laws? Perhaps we could even start with enforcement of the ones on the book.

The goal here is not to inconvenience gun owners, but to greatly inconvenience nut jobs, and to make it easier to trace guns and bullets used in crime back to the shooter.

Waiting periods, traceable munitions, national database of felons, closing of gun show loopholes all have merits and drawbacks, but the key is dialog between gun owners and gun control advocates.

Don't care for trigger locks? Fine, but offer a solution that works for you that keeps children from accidentally getting killed by guns in the home.

The Supreme Court has taken away the NRA's biggest argument. The right to bear arms has been affirmed. Now the NRA needs to take the lead in finding ways to reduce gun deaths in this country.